Indians Can Now Make UPI Payments In These Foreign Countries

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has announced that Indians can make UPI payments outside India too. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated UPI services in Sri Lanka and Mauritius. This virtual event also started RuPay card services in these countries. Moreover, users can activate the international UPI payment option on Google Pay and PhonePe. However, it requires users to register their bank account number on these UPI mobile apps to make UPI payments.

PM Modi said,

I am confident that Indian tourists will give priority to destinations with UPI. People of Indian origin living in Sri Lanka and Mauritius and students studying there will also get special benefits from it.

What is UPI?

UPI, which means the Unified Payments Interface, is a quick and real-time payment system that enables users to make payments across many bank accounts. Moreover, the UPI system does not share your bank details, and over the past few years, many countries other than India have started accepting UPI payments. These nations are listed below.

Bhutan

Two authorities from India and Bhutan, namely NPCI International Payments Ltd. (NIPL) and the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA), partnered in 2021 to allow UPI payments in Bhutan.

Oman

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), International Payments Ltd. (NIPL), and the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in October 2022 to enable the use of Indian RuPay cards in Oman.

Mauritius 

As mentioned earlier, PM Modi has recently inaugurated the use of UPI-enabled apps and Indian RuPay card services in Mauritius.

Sri Lanka

It was also revealed that Indians will be able to use UPI apps in Sri Lanka in order to make QR code-based payments.

Nepal

UPI users can also make merchant payments and bank transfers to India with their UPI ID.

France

A few days ago, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) and Lyra shared that France has also started to accept UPI. Indian tourists will be able to make payments through their UPI apps by scanning QR codes on the Eiffel Tower website.

Southeast Asia

NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) has also signed a deal with Singapore-based Liquid Group to allow users to make UPI payments in 10 Southeast Asian countries. These include Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

Reportedly, the Indian government is also trying to enable UPI payment services in other countries such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and more.